The present invention relates to the field of cartridges for containing rolls of photosensitive material.
Rectangular cartridges for containing rolls of photosensitive material have been employed for many years. Such cartridges include an exit orifice positioned between a pair of perpendicular side walls, such exit orifice also including light seal means, such as a strip of felt material, for preventing light from entering the cartridge and fogging film contained therein.
In view of cost factors, it is often desirable to manufacture the cartridges out of cardboard as they are thrown away after the roll of photosensitive material is used up. After the roll of photosensitive material is inserted within the opened cardboard cartridges, the walls adjacent the above-mentioned exit orifice are folded together in order to close the light seal within the exit orifice. Since the widths between the wall members are substantially equal to the diameter of the roll of photosensitive material, there is little room within the cartridge in the neighborhood of the exit orifice to add structure for reinforcing or stiffening the terminal wall portions adjacent the exit orifice. This stiffening is often desirable in order to strengthen the overall light seal-exit orifice structure. In accordance with the present invention, a substantially skewed side wall is provided which, unlike the conventional rectangular arrangement, provides for sufficient empty space within the cartridge to accommodate such reinforcing means.
With the cartridge orientation of FIG. 1, the skewed side wall arrangement permits the roll to be inserted from the top after the elongated top wall adjacent the skewed side wall is opened. Unlike the prior art cartridge, the light seal-exit orifice structure at the top portion of the skewed side wall is displaced further away from the central core portion due to wall skewing, so that the roll may be readily dropped in from the top during assembly in the dark without having the light seal structure get in the way of the roll. In other words, the cartridge of the present invention may be leaded merely by opening the one elongated wall to provide top, or for that matter, side loading, depending upon the location of such elongated wall. In the rectangular cartridge of the prior art, this is not possible because the light seal-exit orifice structure would get in the way of the roll, unless both walls adjacent the light seal structure are opened. Thus, assembly is considerably simplified.